Posts Tagged ‘science experiments’

{Bridge Building, 101} Seattle Area Lifestyle Photographer

April 20th, 2013

Both boys are on spring break this week from preschool and elementary school respectively. Now, spring break around here is hit or miss weather wise, usually more of a miss. I came across this project idea for  building a bridge from Science Sparks (a new monthly link up they have called Challenge and Discover) and [...]
 

Both boys are on spring break this week from preschool and elementary school respectively. Now, spring break around here is hit or miss weather wise, usually more of a miss. I came across this project idea for  building a bridge from Science Sparks (a new monthly link up they have called Challenge and Discover) and thought, what a GREAT project! The boys took to it quite enthusiastically, and it took up most of a morning. It definitely was one of the best science projects we’ve done. Not only did we get to draw out what we thought our bridge would look like, we got to build it out of newspaper (!!), measure and look at numbers, have a failed experiment, rethink our project, and then have a successful bridge. WOO HOO!

The guidelines to the project were: A) The bridge had to hold at least one kilogram (1kg=2.2lb) and B) the bridge had to be made out of one object in the recycle bin. Here is what we did for our project.

We used newspaper and scotch tape.

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Here is the draft that my oldest drew for what he thought the bridge would look like. I would like you to note the star shape under the bridge!

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For my preschooler, I printed out different bridges and had him circle ones he liked.

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Next, we rolled up the newspaper in order to make it sturdier, like sticks. We rolled up half sheets, then cut them in half again for the bridge supports. For the main bridge, we rolled up a whole sheet for the bridge decking.

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Our supports. I helped with this phase, I think we rolled up 12 pieces of newspaper to make 24 supports.

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The boys figuring out how to attach them together.

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My oldest went back to his drawing and decided the star design was the strongest. He went to town with the tape.

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Cutting to level the supports.

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The bridge decking, and all the leg supports.

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The preschooler was Captain Tape Giver Person

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He also measured the length and width of the bridge.

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The bridge was 32 inches long, and 6 inches wide.

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My oldest then went to taping the star shaped supports to the bridge deck.

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The bridge is finished! We did have some problems with leveling (my husband later surmised it may have been sturdier on carpet, or another more giving surface than hardwood).

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First test: EPIC FAIL!

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We decided that scotch tape was not strong enough, so we went back and reinforced the supports with duct tape. SUCCESS!

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Overall, this was a super fun and exciting project. My oldest did most of this, from drawing the bridge, to figuring out how to make it from the supports, to being sad about it not working, to suggesting the duct tape. We even made a video where he explains everything, if you want to watch. Thank you again, Science Sparks, for hosting this great event! We look forward to what’s in store for next month!

 

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{JELL-O Science} Seattle Area Lifestyle Photographer

April 2nd, 2013

Last year at the Seattle Center and Bumbershoot, the kids got see art in action. Artists Lisa Hein and Robert Seng were building a wall made of Jell-O on the premises. Let me repeat that: They were building a WALL MADE OF JELL-O. The kids were amazed. Of course, my preschooler asked “Can. We. EAT [...]
 

Last year at the Seattle Center and Bumbershoot, the kids got see art in action. Artists Lisa Hein and Robert Seng were building a wall made of Jell-O on the premises. Let me repeat that: They were building a WALL MADE OF JELL-O. The kids were amazed. Of course, my preschooler asked “Can. We. EAT IT.” They were using mortar, and Jell-O was used in place of bricks. As the Jell-O decayed and molded away, the mortar remained, and they had built it higher than the boys’ waist when we saw it. Needless to say, they wanted to try building their own Jell-o wall at home. (But maybe, without the mold). I googled and checked to see what other experiments we could do with Jell-o, and found a fun one about figuring out if we could nail Jell-o to a wall. So off we went!

What You’ll Need:

  • Jell-O packets (we had 4 packages at our house, so we made two regular pans of Jell-o, and one pan of Jigglers)
  • board
  • nails
  • drinking straws
  • **optional** sliced fruit. I thought to use it like “mortar” for the Jell-O, but it turned out I didn’t need it at all

 

Ready for some Jell-O experimentation!

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The boys’ had to write their own hypothesis about if Jell-o could stick to a wall. The preschooler did not believe it could. Because it’s food, and food does NOT stick to walls (believe me, he’s tested this hypothesis on more than one food object at our house during meal times.)

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Our starting boards. The nails I hammered in for the boys, and I set them up outside for the Jell-o building.

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Why yes, that is my preschooler sniffing the Jell-O. I…don’t even ask why he does it anymore.

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Starting to build the Jell-O wall! SO EXCITING!

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As you can see, we gave up using fruit (mainly because the boys’ kept eating the fruit since I forbade them from eating the Jell-o until the experiments were done). The wall seemed to be stable enough.

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We got to five Jell-o levels before…oh no! They all came a-tumbling down.

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“Now we can eat them, mommy?”

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These just crack me up. They were very serious about their Jell-o consumption.

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NEXT UP! Using straws as supports over the nails, we put the JIGGLER Jell-o on the wall! The regular jello just fell down (even with straw supports), but the jiggler jello stayed put!

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And our exciting conclusions.

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Overall, using Jell-O to conduct some science experiments was super fun! 

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{Egg Science! Newton’s First Law} Seattle Area Lifestyle Photographer

March 26th, 2013

We did a quick and easy experiment to demonstrate some physics at our house the other day. My  boys are very into space, planets, and anything that doesn’t involve keeping their two feet on earth. Sir Isaac Newton’s book Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy helped formulate the laws of motion and universal gravitation which explain how planets [...]
 

We did a quick and easy experiment to demonstrate some physics at our house the other day. My  boys are very into space, planets, and anything that doesn’t involve keeping their two feet on earth. Sir Isaac Newton’s book Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy helped formulate the laws of motion and universal gravitation which explain how planets move around the sun, etc. etc. We touched on Newton’s Laws of Motions a little bit, and I found this easy experiment to help demonstrate his First Law, which states:  every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion, unless an external force is applied to it. Alternately, objects that in a state of rest will remain in a state of rest, unless an external force is applied to it (also called “inertia”). My younger son, who loves math problems, liked it when I showed him what Newton’s First Law looked like as a math problem:

<br /><br /><br /> \sum \mathbf{F} = 0\; \Rightarrow\; \frac{\mathrm{d} \mathbf{v} }{\mathrm{d}t} = 0.<br /><br /><br />

 

For this experiment, you take an object (an egg), place a support under it, then knock the support out. The egg is at rest, then we apply an external source (gravity, in this case, as we take away the support), then it gets to rest again once it falls into the glass. **NOTE** For preschoolers, I would not use real eggs, but plastic ones, weighted with beans or rice. Scroll down to the bottom to see why not. :)

What You’ll Need:

  • egg (real or weighted plastic ones)
  • aluminum pie plate
  • glass of water (you can color the water if you like)
  • cardboard tube

 

Set Up:

Set up your glass of water, with the pie pan on top of the glass. Then, set your toilet paper tube. Then, set the egg on sideways. you want to hit the edge of the pie pan so that it hooks the toilet paper tube, knocking the egg down. But, don’t hit the glass!

My intrepid scientist! Since we used real eggs, I let the seven year old demonstrate this experiment. He was ready and willing to take one for science!

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Our set up was very simple: egg set SIDEWAYS (important!), toilet paper tube, tin foil pie pan, glass of water

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The experiment in action! He hits the pie plate, and does the egg fly off, or drop down? Pretty cool to see it proven!

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Newton’s First Law – an object (EGG) at rest, will stay at rest unless acted on by an external source!

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I took these pictures to show you what happened when the four year old tried the experiment. He got a little oversealous and hit the glass of water.  Oops!

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Ah, well! Next time for the preschool set, I would definitely use a plastic easter egg filled with rice or beans to weight it down, instead of a real egg.

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{Learning about Acids and Bases} Seattle Area Lifestyle Photographer

March 2nd, 2013

Here’s another great experiment I found on the Steve Spangler Science website. Here, we use red cabbage to make a simple indicator to find out what liquids are acids or bases around our house. It’s a great chemistry experiment, and you adjust the level of the explanation of the science behind the experiment in relation [...]
 

Here’s another great experiment I found on the Steve Spangler Science website. Here, we use red cabbage to make a simple indicator to find out what liquids are acids or bases around our house. It’s a great chemistry experiment, and you adjust the level of the explanation of the science behind the experiment in relation to how much your child can absorb.

What You’ll Need:

  • RED Cabbage Leaves (I used 2)
  • Blender
  • Enthusiastic helpers
  • Clear glasses
  • big graduated cylinder (or just tall, clear container to hold your cabbage “juice”)
  • test chemicals!

 Ideas for Household Test Chemicals:

  • household ammonia (NH3)
  • baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3)
  • baking powder (basically baking soda + a salt)
  • washing soda (sodium carbonate, Na2CO3) or another laundry detergent
  • lemon juice (citric acid, C6H8O7)
  • vinegar (acetic acid, CH3COOH)
  • cream of tartar (Potassium bitartrate, KHC4H4O6)
  • antacids (calcium carbonate, calcium hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide)
  • seltzer water (carbonic acid, H2CO3)
  • ketchup
  • milk
  • juice
  • 7 up/Sprite/some other lemon-lime drink

 

I enjoyed using red cabbage since it was an inexpensive item, and you didn’t have to use a lot. I used two leaves, and had the boys enthusiastically shred the leaves in small pieces before putting them in the blender. Then, I strained the mixture to get all the leaf bits out and leave just “cabbage juice”. The ratio is 1 leaf : 6 cups of waters but I cheated a bit and used 1 leaf : 3 cups of water. It made it a bit more concentrated, but my blender was small.

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From L – R, we used: baking soda (dissolved in water), baking powder (dissolved in water),  apple cider vinegar, milk, white vinegar, cranberry juice, gatorade, and ketchup.20120912_066WM

A view before we added to the cabbage juice indicator.20120912_068WM

And after! This was a pretty exciting and cool experiment for the boys and me, as we could predict beforehand what we thought would happen (was the substance an acid OR a base?) and then see how our conclusions were proven right or right. Plus, it was just awesome to see the color change from purple to green or red!
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A close up shot of the changed cabbage juice indicators. Sweet!20120912_072WM

This science experiment involved mixing, color changes, fizzing, predictions AND conclusions. All in all, very satisfying and successful!20120912_073WM

We made a chart of what we used, our predictiosn (I used A for acid and B for base), and what the cabbage juice indicated if it was a base or acid.20120912_074WM

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{Science Fun – Density Tower} Seattle Area Lifestyle Photographer

February 5th, 2013

**Hello and welcome! Please check out my other science experiments under the “science experiments” categories above. And please, leave a comment on how you found me!**   Everyone has seen the very cool layered density column featuring different liquids (usually different colors), then you drop in things to show how there are different densities and [...]
 

**Hello and welcome! Please check out my other science experiments under the “science experiments” categories above. And please, leave a comment on how you found me!**

 

Everyone has seen the very cool layered density column featuring different liquids (usually different colors), then you drop in things to show how there are different densities and things fall in either all the way, some of the way, or float right at the top. This is a great visual learning experiment. You pour the heaviest liquid in first, being careful not to let it touch the sides. Then, pour in the rest of the liquids you chose. Pick some household items to drop in (ping pong balls, golf balls, pick both heavy and light objects for the best displays), and let your little scientist figure out how density means that different layers will support different items!

 

What You’ll Need (in list of heaviest to lightest):

  • Honey
  • Corn syrup or pancake syrup
  • Dish soap (I used Dawn because it was blue and pretty)
  • water (you can color it)
  • vegetable oil
  • rubbing alcohol (you can also color this to differentiate it or just to make it pretty.)
  • lamp oil
  • Random Household Objects – have fun with this one! check out small items like toy balls, ping pong balls, golf balls, beans, legos, screws, washers, keys, etc.

 

 

Our layers! I used what I had on hand.  In order: honey, corn syrup, dishwasher soap, water (I colored it red to differentiate), corn oil.

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My little scientist in training.

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I let him pick items around the house to drop into the layers. He picked lego mini figure, buttons, different beans, pasta, peppercorns, an aluminum screw and a metal screw.

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The ingredients and what the layers looked like. In hindsight, I would have colored the water something lighter!

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He didn’t believe me that the layers wouldn’t mix, so he was watching very closely.

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“mommy, look! they’re staying separated!”

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Our first pass dropping items into the layers.

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Lego Man and the peppercorns stayed on top.

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After a while, we noticed that items started to sink through the corn syrup layer, especially if you piled more things on top.

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A before and after shot. Overall, a fun and colorful experiment!

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{Stick + Balloon = FUN!} Seattle Area Lifestyle Photographer

March 19th, 2012

I saw this experiment on the Steve Spangler experiment of the day email and thought “WOW! the kids would love this!” The experiment teaches you about what latex rubber is made of (long molecules), and when you blow up a balloon, some areas will stretch further than other areas. I attempted to talk to the [...]
 

I saw this experiment on the Steve Spangler experiment of the day email and thought “WOW! the kids would love this!” The experiment teaches you about what latex rubber is made of (long molecules), and when you blow up a balloon, some areas will stretch further than other areas. I attempted to talk to the boys about the science behind the experiment, but in all honesty, I think they tuned me out when I brought out the sticks and balloons. :)  This is a very simple set up, but you do need nerves of steel, or at least ear plugs, if your kids really just like popping balloons.

As always, check out Let’s Lasso the Moon, Adventures in Mommydom, and Science Sparks for more kid-oriented science experiments!

 

Materials Needed:

  • balloons (I used 8″ latex ones)
  • bamboo skewers
  • permanent marker (I used Sharpie – do NOT use dry erase, as it came off the balloon easily)
  • oil (doesn’t matter, I used cooking oil)

 Basic Experiment:

You want to coat the skewer with a thing coat of oil (I used a paper towel). Then, push the skewer through the ends of the balloon – near the end that is tied, and near the top.

Not pictured – the oil we used. But it was just to coat the skewer. Simple experiment set up!

 

 

Our experiment: Can a stick go through a balloon without popping?

 

Both boys answered with a resounding “NO!”

We took our balloon

 

Then we drew dots all over it in various places

 

We then blew it up and checked out what the dots looked like. We talked about how the balloon stretches (the long rubber molecules), but it doesn’t stretch evenly. That was why some dots got “faded” and looked bigger, while other dots looked the same. The more stretched out dots meant a thinner area of the rubber.

 

You can really see the different here at the top of how little the balloon had stretched and how much the dot had NOT changed.

 

 

 And the moment of truth...SKEWER THROUGH BALLOON! It totally worked. The bonus is also that when you take the skewer out, the balloon doesn’t pop! (it does hiss air though and deflates)

 

 Here’s a video showing my 3yo doing the skewer pushing through the balloon. Totally fun science experiment!

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{Up, up and away!} Seattle Area Lifestyle Photographer

March 10th, 2012

This is part craft, part science experiment, and 100% fun. We did this last summer, to learn about equilibrium. The boys had a blast figuring out how best to balance the balloon, and had so much fun floating it around in the backyard. The balloon only lasted a day, but it was a fun day [...]
 

This is part craft, part science experiment, and 100% fun. We did this last summer, to learn about equilibrium. The boys had a blast figuring out how best to balance the balloon, and had so much fun floating it around in the backyard. The balloon only lasted a day, but it was a fun day while it lasted! (or, at least until I fell off a ladder, but that’s another story). I got the idea from the lovely BookHaus Crafts, who always has fun and interesting ideas!

What You’ll Need:

  • large helium-filled balloon (I got mine at the party store, filled with helium for $2)
  • small basket (I used a plastic strawberry crate)
  • Netted  produce bag or ribbon/yarn (we used yarn)
  • toys
  • Scissors
  • tape
Things I learned:

  • you can tie the ribbon/yarn to the netting for the top of your balloon, or just tie ribbon/yarn. We used yarn, and taped it to the sides of the balloon to make sure it didn’t move around
  • do the balancing indoors first before you take the balloon outside, it will save a lot of time
  • have your kids chose an assortment of toys to put in the basket, both big, heavy, and small. make sure it covers the bottom of the basket though, so it doesn’t tip over
  • check out if it’s windy and how the weather is outside. in our case, it was very windy and muggy so when we went outside the air expanded inside the balloon causing it to float up much higher
  • believe in the equilibrium. no matter how far up the balloon floats, it will come down
  • this might be better to do indoors if you have high ceilings, although my kids did have a grand ol’ time chasing it around the yard
  • do NOT, under any circumstances, try to get the balloon if it gets stuck in a tree. the balloon will come down on its own
  • if you are unlucky like I was, you can turn the lesson about equilibrium into a lesson about gravity instead

 

We found out that pink Domo Kun was a perfect fit to achieve equilibrium. this was after many tries with other toys. I do not recommend anything small and rolling, as the basket has a hard time staying level.

 

My youngest doing the first launch

 

And there it goes up!  Look at the excitement on his face.

You can see it’s starting to float back down again here

And floating up again. You can see how we taped the yarn to the sides of the balloon here

My oldest does a launch as well.

 Up, up and away!

 

So starting with it on the ground, you can see how easily the balloon floats up and down with its Domo Kun passenger

 

And another look at my youngest launching the hot air balloon. Such a fun craft!

 

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{Pennies in Vinegar} Seattle Area Lifestyle Photographer

March 1st, 2012

Another great science website I found is Science Bob. I’ve looked at a ton of “kid’s science experiments!” books but I really wanted to go beyond the basic “baking soda and vinegar” combinations and show them other chemical interactions. When I saw his experiment on  ”How To Clean Pennies in Vinegar” I knew that was [...]
 

Another great science website I found is Science Bob. I’ve looked at a ton of “kid’s science experiments!” books but I really wanted to go beyond the basic “baking soda and vinegar” combinations and show them other chemical interactions. When I saw his experiment on  ”How To Clean Pennies in Vinegar” I knew that was exactly what I was looking for! It involved basic things we had in our house, and showed cool chemical reactions with acids. For more great science experiments, check out Adventures in Mommyness‘s Science Sunday (linky at the bottom of this post)!

 

What You Need:

  • vinegar
  • salt
  • some other type of acid (optional; we used orange juice, you can also use lemon juice)
  • old, dull pennies
  • quarters/dimes/nickes or nuts and bolts (optional)
  • water
  • paper towels

 

We started off with our question: What happens when you put pennies in vinegar and salt? (1/4 cup vinegar to 1 tsp salt)

 

The boys’ hypothesis on what they think will happen.  Samuel thought “it will turn colors”

 

Our liquids! Clockwise: vinegar and salt (dark pink); orange juice (purple); distill water as our “control” (blue); just vinegar (light pink)

 

Pennies before the experiment. I picked nice and dull ones, most of them were before 1969

 

We put pennies in the liquids. You can see the acid cleaning actually starting!

 

We took the pennies out and dried them off. Cool, eh? The boys were very impressed.

 

BONUS! This is what happened to the pennies when we took them out of the vinegar/salt solution and DID NOT dry them off.  (we left them alone for about an hour). The green stuff is a compound called malachite, a copper carbonite, formed with the penny oxidizing (wet copper reacting with the oxygen in the air).

 

After you take the pennies out of the vinegar/salt solution, here’s something else you can do. You can either put nuts/bolts in it, or quarter/dimes/nickels. They will attract the free floating copper ions and turn copperish color. You can see it best on the coins at the bottom of the photo

 

And what we learned: Pennies in vinegar turn “siny” (shiny).

 

Here are some direction comparions of before and after with drying the pennies

 

And a before and after with NOT drying the pennies

 

And the science behind what happened!

 

Science Sunday

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{Ivory Soap Science Experiment} Seattle Area Lifestyle Photographer

February 20th, 2012

It’s monday and not sunday, but I’m still going to call it the sunday science post. I found this cool (and easy!) experiment titled “What Happens When You Microwave Ivory Soap” . I thought, how different could Ivory soap be from other soaps? It was a super fun, easy, clean!, and also preschooler friendly experiment. Here [...]
 

It’s monday and not sunday, but I’m still going to call it the sunday science post. I found this cool (and easy!) experiment titled “What Happens When You Microwave Ivory Soap” . I thought, how different could Ivory soap be from other soaps? It was a super fun, easy, clean!, and also preschooler friendly experiment. Here is what we did.

 

You Need:

  • bar of Ivory soap, quartered. IMPORTANT one of the soaps needs to be Ivory
  • bar of some other soap, quartered
  • microwave (put soap in for 30 seconds at a time)
  • microwave safe dish (we used paper plates)
  • big bowl of water (optional – for playing with the soap)

 

Our Hypothesis: What Happens When You Microwave Ivory Soap?  (This was before we had the cool chalkboards to write stuff down)

Six Year Old: it doesn’t do anything

Three Year Old: it becomes tasty? (heh, he cracks me up)

We started with the Ivory soap

We also used Lever 2000 as our secondary control

We broke the soap in half to see what it looked like inside

The Lever 2000 after we microwaved for 60 seconds

Aannnnnnnnnnnnd…here is what Ivory soap looks like after being microwaved for 60 seconds!

Another before and after shot of the Lever 2000

And a before and after of the Ivory soap

 

CONCLUSION: Ivory soap blows up in the microwave, where the other soap did not.

WHY: Ivory soap is made up of whipped air! When you microwave it, the air expands into the surrounding solid state soap, thus making it “blow up” , aka turn into soap foam.

 

Other cool things to try with Ivory Soap vs. Other Soap:

  • Place a bar of Ivory and your Other Soap in a bowl of water. Does it float? Does it sink?
  • Cut or break off a piece of Ivory and your Other Soap and examine it. Do you see pockets of air? (if you cut non-Ivory soap, make sure you have a strong hand because it will be harder to cut)
  • HAVE FUN!

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{The Bottomless Pit} Seattle Area Lifestyle Photographer

January 30th, 2012

I realize today is monday so technically this isn’t “Science Sunday” but it’s still a fun science project! I got the idea from this wonderful book, The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science by Sean Connolly. This project does need adult supervision, since there is nail polish remover involved, and I would recommend doing this outside, [...]
 

I realize today is monday so technically this isn’t “Science Sunday” but it’s still a fun science project! I got the idea from this wonderful book, The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science by Sean Connolly. This project does need adult supervision, since there is nail polish remover involved, and I would recommend doing this outside, or in a ventilated space because of the smell factor (my kids didn’t like the smell of the nail polish remover).

What You Need:

  • Empty tin or aluminum can
  • Pieces of styrofoam** (packing peanuts work well. we didn’t have any on hand so I broke up a bigger piece). You need a lot, approximately a pile as big as a basketball
  • Nail Polish Remover
  • Stick (we used a chopstick)
  • Rubber Gloves (optional)
  • Goggles (optional)
**Do not use the green recycled styrofoam peanuts, their composition is a bit different than regular white styrofoam.

 

First, we had our hypothesis – how many pieces of styrofoam did we think the can could hold?

Our can, with approximately 1″ of nail polish remover at the bottom. You can use a couple of inches, but one inch was good for our purposes.

 

The box of styrofoam pieces we started out with – note that it’s a full box. Packing peanuts would work better as the pieces are more uniform, but I went with what I had on hand.

 

I had the boys measure out how many pieces they thought the can could hold. This is what they came up with – a pretty good guesstimate based on the can’s size.

 

 

Then, we dropped in pieces of styrofoam until the can “filled up”. My husband was on hand to help and direct.

 

Still dropping in pieces.

 

In the end, we ended up using about half the box. Way more than the few handfuls the boys predicted would fit in the can!

 

A side by side comparison of the before and after shots of how many pieces we were able to “fit” in the can.

 

Our conclusion of how many pieces could fit in the can: MENY! (gotta love creative six year old spelling)

And the explanation behind the experiment. I had the boys squish little pieces of styrofoam between their fingers to see how much “air” was trapped inside, and thus we could explain that the aceton (aka nail polish remover), dissolved the bonds holding the air inside the styrofoam from a big piece to a little piece.

 

The melted styrofoam/acetone mixture can be frozen, then thrown away safely. It was really fun for all parties, including my husband!

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